[Brainstorming] Scars of Mirrodin in Legacy – A Fundamental Shift in Stax

First there was Nevinyral's Disk, giving decks everywhere a chance to reset the board. Then came Powder Keg, a cheaper but more restrictive way to remove irritating artifacts and creatures in mono blue decks. With Mirrodin came Engineered Explosives, giving Pernicious Deed to multicolour decks lacking black green. Scars of Mirrodin brought us the new and improved Ratchet Bomb which now removes all threats from Aether Vial and Counterbalance to Tarmogoyf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I expect this to be a big boost to Ancient Tomb decks.

The Ancient Tomb Pillar

For the interest of those who are not that familiar to Legacy, the format is supported by four main pillars: Aether Vial, Counterbalance, Life from the Loam, and Ancient Tomb. These cards form the skeleton of archetypes in combination with other powerful cards and place constraints not only on the archetypes they support, but also on other decks in the format. All viable decks should have a game plan against these cards. However, this is not the day to theorize about the format in general.

Let's focus on Ancient Tomb.

Ancient Tomb decks will gain most from Scars of Mirrodin block with the vast number of artifacts that will be printed. Decks such as Dragon Stompy, Faerie Stompy, Mono Green Chalice Aggro, and various colours of Stax are either going to get more threats the likes of Lodestone Golem and Koth of the Hammer, or disruption like Ratchet Bomb. Whether they are used depends on whether the new cards fill a gap in the decks' gameplan.

The Lack of Consistency

It has been said that the traditional weakness of Ancient Tomb decks is that they lack consistency. Let's look at some decklists to see what I mean.

White Stax – 11th Seattle SCG Open 13th June 2010 – Alex Kenny

Mana (25 + 4)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
3 Flagstones of Trokair
6 Plains
4 Mox Diamond

Disruption (27)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Smokestack
4 Ghostly Prison
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Armageddon

Others (4)
4 Crucible Of Worlds

Sideboard (15)
1 Defense Grid
2 Powder Keg
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Lodestone Golem
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Humility
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Enlightened Tutor

Koth Dragon Stompy

Mana (19 + 8)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Mountain
4 Chrome Mox
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Disruption (16)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Blood Moon
4 Magus of the Moon

Threats (17)
4 Gathan Raiders
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Koth of the Hammer
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
3 Arc-Slogger

As you may have noticed, Sword of Fire and Ice or Horizon Canopy are the only sources of extra cards in Ancient Tomb decks. As they rely on Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere and mana disruption to generate card advantage, they opt not to utilize cards such as Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top that offer card selection. Thus, they rely only on the single draw phase every turn and pray for the right card at the right time. If you're facing a fast aggro deck, you'd better not draw the mediocre Crucible of Worlds (Mishra's Factory recursion is not that great). If you're facing a control deck, Trinisphere isn't really what you want.

To solve this problem, Ancient Tomb decks need to be packed with multiple copies of cards that fulfil the same purpose. White Stax does this by emphasizing the mana denial aspect with Armageddon, Magus of the Tabernacle, and Ghostly Prison while Dragon Stompy goes on a two-prong attack with the 8 Moons and big threats like Rakdos Pit Dragon and Arc-Slogger.

Unfortunately, we don't see many Ancient Tomb decks at the top tables. In the past 12 Star City Games Legacy Open events, there is only a single copy of White Stax placing within top 16. Note that combo decks such as Dream Halls and Painter Grindstone that use Ancient Tomb for acceleration are not counted. Painter Grindstone made 4 top 16's and Dream Halls added an additional 1, not impressive when you know Dredge made 7 top 16's. And Dredge is at most a tier 1.5 deck in Legacy.

Apparently, the current builds of Ancient Tomb decks are unable to deal with the format.

That's not surprising, considering that you give your opponent a free Time Walk if you do no open with a Chalice @ 1 nor keep a hand with Mox Diamond/Chrome Mox. How do you deal with first turn 3/3s, Aether Vial, or Goblin Lackey?

One way is to rebuild Ancient Tomb decks from the start, by lowering the mana curve and including more 2-mana spells for first turn answers. Ratchet Bomb fits in excellently.

Consistency from Scars of Mirrodin

Remember that Ancient Tomb decks need to increase consistency by packing cards that overlap in function? In my testing with Blue Stax, affectionately termed as Wired Balls =) for its inclusion of Tangle Wire and Winter Orb, Powder Keg is included as the first line of defence against fast threats. It also destroys the greatest enemy of Stax – Aether Vial. The printing of Ratchet Bomb adds onto the removal arsenal and increases the consistency of the deck by giving it a total of 12 ways to deal with first and second turn threats. Addition of both Powder Keg and Ratchet Bomb gives the build a lower mana curve and a total of 3 legitimate first turn plays as long as you draw one of the 8 2-mana lands, an easier task to achieve than fanning open a hand with a Mox and a 2-mana land.

Scars of Mirrodin also brought along Tumble Magnet, similar in function to Tangle Wire in that it can tap the opponent's threats. This overlap in function contributes towards the deck's consistency as both buys you time to draw into more lock pieces. Together with Propaganda, these give you your 12 second turn plays. You'll then follow up with either Winter Orb, Pendrell Mists, or Crucible of Worlds to lock up the opponent's mana. Tezzeret then lands to give you the win.

Here's a deck list for your reference.

Wired Balls

Mana (24)
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
3 Seat of the Synod
5 Island

Disruption (33)
4 Powder Keg
4 Ratchet Bomb
3 Winter Orb
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Propaganda
4 Tangle Wire
4 Tumble Magnet
3 Pendrell Mists

Threats (3)
3 Tezzeret the Seeker

Others (3)
3 Crucible of Worlds

With only half of the set spoiled, there may still be new cards that can impact the design of Ancient Tomb decks. For instance, another Lodestone Golem or Master of Etherium can push it into an aggro stance. Whatever the future holds, it's bound to spell G O O D.

Further Reading

Any time you go check out the New and Developmental Decks section of MTG The Source, you're bound to find attempts to develop new variations of Ancient Tomb decks. Keep in mind that these attempts are often short-lived. Here's a couple that are still available at the time of writing:
Blue Artifact Aggro
Blue Affinity Aggro
Tezzeret Stax

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